Has a 16 seed ever won the NCAA women's tournament? NCAAW March Madness history explored

Fans can go on and on about the differences between the men's and women's games in NCAA D1 basketball. But perhaps there's one clear thing they can agree on: upsets are an absolutely critical part of the game, and it's what makes the name "March Madness" fit the entire postseason like a glove.

That said, here's a look at the history of the NCAA women's tournament to see whether the ladies have done something that men haven't done in D1 college hoops: a 16-seed winning it all. Read on to find out what happened and delve into a trove of rich college basketball history.

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Has a 16 seed ever won the NCAA women's tournament?

No, no 16-seed team has ever won the NCAA women's tournament. This is a testament to just how incredibly tough it is for a team seeded that low to even make it out of the first round. But that doesn't mean that a 16-seed cannot win--let alone beat a 1-seed in the opening round of the tournament.

When it did happen, however, it was the first-ever 16-1 upset in college basketball history (including both men's and women's competitions).

In 1998, the 16-seed Harvard Crimson faced off against the Stanford Cardinal in the first round of the NCAA women's tournament. Current head coach Tara Vanderveer was already at the helm of the Cardinal by then, and no one else believed that they'd lose--but they did, and in spectacularly close fashion, too.

Harvard, on the other hand, was a 16-seed for the third straight year despite ending up with an excellent 22-4 overall record and winning their then-sixth Ivy League title. Aside from that, they had the league's then-best scorer in the nation in Allison Feaster (28.5 PPG that season) on their side.

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How did Harvard beat Stanford in the first round?

The Crimson was down one, 63-62, with just under four minutes left in the game. It took a while until Harvard scored to finally take a 66-65 lead with 1:33 remaining on a jumpshot by Suzie Miller from the elbow. Stanford, on the other hand, didn't make any field goal; basically leaving the door open for Harvard to take the lead late.

Then, Miller once more hit another huge shot: a 3-pointer from the corner to push Harvard's lead to 69-65 with just 46 seconds remaining. A turnover by Stanford with under 30 seconds left in the game allowed Feaster, the team's leading scorer, to hit two free throws (she actually split on two consecutive tries on the line) and finally put Harvard up 71-67 for the final score.

After this monumental upset, it would take 20 years before that Harvard women's team would be joined by the UMBC Golden Retrievers (and eventually the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights, both men's teams) to be the only three 16-seed teams in NCAA D1 history to knock off a 1.